We theoretically investigate quantum parameter estimation in quantum chaotic systems. Our analysis is based on an effective description of quantum ergodic systems in terms of a random matrix Hamiltonian. Based on this approach, we derive an analytical expression for the time evolution of the quantum Fisher information (QFI), which we find to have three distinct timescales. Initially, the QFI increase is quadratic in time, characterizing the timescale over which initial information is extractable from local measurements only. This quickly passes into linear increase with slope determined by the decay rate of the measured spin observable. When the information is fully spread among all degrees of freedom, a second quadratic timescale determines the long-time behavior of the QFI. We test our random matrix theory prediction with the exact diagonalization of a nonintegrable spin system, focusing on the estimation of a local magnetic field by measurements of the many-body state. Our numerical calculations agree with the effective random matrix theory approach and show that the information on the local Hamiltonian parameter is distributed throughout the quantum system during the quantum thermalization process.
We theoretically investigate quantum parameter estimation in quantum chaotic systems. Our analysis is based on an effective description of quantum ergodic systems in terms of a random matrix Hamiltonian. Based on this approach, we derive an analytical expression for the time evolution of the quantum Fisher information (QFI), which we find to have three distinct timescales. Initially, the QFI increase is quadratic in time, characterizing the timescale over which initial information is extractable from local measurements only. This quickly passes into linear increase with slope determined by the decay rate of the measured spin observable. When the information is fully spread among all degrees of freedom, a second quadratic timescale determines the long-time behavior of the QFI. We test our random matrix theory prediction with the exact diagonalization of a nonintegrable spin system, focusing on the estimation of a local magnetic field by measurements of the many-body state. Our numerical calculations agree with the effective random matrix theory approach and show that the information on the local Hamiltonian parameter is distributed throughout the quantum system during the quantum thermalization process.
We theoretically investigate parameter quantum estimation in quantum chaotic systems. Our analysis is based on an effective description of non-integrable quantum systems in terms of a random matrix Hamiltonian. Based on this approach we derive an analytical expression for the time evolution of the quantum Fisher information. We test our random matrix theory prediction with the exact diagonalization of a non-integrable spin system, focusing on the estimation of a local magnetic field by measurements of the many-body state. Our numerical calculations agree with the effective random matrix theory approach and show that the information on the local Hamiltonian parameter is distributed throughout the quantum system during the quantum thermalization process. Our analysis shows a first stage in which the initial information spread is quadratic in time which quickly passes into linear increase with slope determine by the decay rate of the measured spin observable. When the information is fully spread among all degrees of freedom a second quadratic time scale determines the long time behaviour of the quantum Fisher information.
The characterization of entanglement is a central problem for the study of quantum many-body dynamics. Here, we propose the quantum Fisher information (QFI) as a useful tool for the study of multipartite-entanglement dynamics in many-body systems. We illustrate this by considering the regular-to-ergodic transition in the Dicke model---a fully connected spin model showing quantum thermalization above a critical interaction strength. We show that the QFI has a rich dynamical behavior which drastically changes across the transition. In particular, the asymptotic value of the QFI as well as its characteristic timescales witness the transition both through their dependence on the interaction strength and through the scaling with the system size. Since the QFI also sets the ultimate bound for the precision of parameter estimation, it provides a metrological perspective on the characterization of entanglement dynamics in many-body systems. Here, we show that quantum ergodic dynamics allows for a much faster production of metrologically useful states.
Quantum many-body systems can exhibit distinct regimes where dynamics is either ergodic, dynamically exploring an extensive region of available state-space, or non-ergodic, where the dynamics may be restricted. An example is the many-body localization (MBL) transition, where disorder induces non-ergodic behaviour. Most measures of ergodicity notably rely on global quantities, such as level spacing statistics. We explore the ability for a subsystem to probe the ergodicity of dynamics via measurement of local observables, and use expected results from random matrix theory (RMT) as a benchmark for the ergodic regime. We exploit two predictions from RMT as ergodicity is broken: the time evolution of the quantum Fisher information, and a fluctuation-dissipation relation. These are investigated in three different ergodicity breaking mechanisms, namely, as a consequence of transition to integrability, MBL, and Quantum Many-Body Scars (QMBS). We show that the predicted behaviour from RMT can be used as a potential witness for transition to non-ergodic behaviour from the measurement of local observables alone.
Phenomena in quantum chaotic systems such as spectral fluctuations are known to be described remarkably well by the random matrix theory (RMT) in small energy intervals and over large time scales. However, in exchange for analytical tractability, RMT has been constructed to leave out an important element of realistic physical systems { the notion of locality. Since quantum information propagates at a finite speed in a spatially-extended quantum chaotic system, there exists time scales before which RMT is effective. How do we describe the non-equilibrium quantum dynamics at intermediate timescales which are much longer than the local relaxation time but too short for RMT to apply? What are the signatures of many-body quantum chaotic systems beyond the description of RMT? In this thesis, we address these questions by analysing minimal models that incorporate a notion of locality and at the same time retain some analytical tractability of RMT. More specifically, we study Floquet quantum circuits that are random in space but periodic in time. These circuits consist of local and random quantum gates that act on a q-state `spin' at each site. After a brief review of classical chaos, quantum chaos, and quantum circuits in Chapter 1, we present three main results. In Chapter 2, we formulate a diagrammatical approach for computing ensemble averages of observables over random unitary circuits, and derive exact results on spectral statistics and dynamical observables for a Floquet circuit in the large-q limit. In Chapter 3, we further investigate the spectral statistics in spatiallyextended many-body quantum chaotic systems by computing the spectral form factor K(t) analytically and numerically. We show that K(t) follows the RMT description at times longer than the Thouless time tTh and identify the scaling of tTh at the large-q limit of a Floquet circuit. In Chapter 4, we discuss eigenstate correlations for spatially-extended many-body quantum chaotic systems, in terms of the statistical properties of matrix elements of local observables. While the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is known to give an excellent description of these quantities, the phenomenon of scrambling and the butterfly effect imply structure beyond ETH. We determine analytically and verify numerically the universal form of this structure at long distances and small eigenvalue separations for Floquet systems.
The quantum Fisher information (QFI) is a geometric measure of state deformation calculated along the trajectory parametrizing an ensemble of quantum states. It serves as a key concept in quantum metrology, where it is linked to the fundamental limit on the precision of the parameter that we estimate. However, the QFI is notoriously difficult to calculate due to its nonlinear mathematical form. For mixed states, standard numerical procedures based on eigendecomposition quickly become impractical with increasing system size. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a numerical approach based on Lyapunov integrals that combines the concept of symmetric logarithmic derivative and tensor networks. Importantly, this approach requires only the elementary matrix product states algorithm for time evolution, opening a perspective for broad usage and application to many-body systems. We discuss the advantages and limitations of our methodology through an illustrative example in quantum metrology, where the thermal state of the transverse-field Ising model is used to measure magnetic field amplitude.
Randomness generation through quantum-chaotic evolution underpins foundational questions in statistical mechanics and applications across quantum information science, including benchmarking, tomography, metrology, and demonstrations of quantum computational advantage. While statistical mechanics successfully captures the temporal averages of local observables, understanding randomness at the level of higher statistical moments remains a daunting challenge, with analytic progress largely confined to random quantum circuit models or fine-tuned systems exhibiting space-time duality. Here we study how much randomness can be dynamically generated by generic quantum-chaotic evolution under physical, non-random Hamiltonians. Combining theoretical insights with numerical simulations, we show that for broad classes of initially unentangled states, the dynamics become effectively Haar-random well before the system can ergodically explore the physically accessible Hilbert space. Both local and highly nonlocal observables, including entanglement measures, equilibrate to their Haar expectation values and fluctuations on polynomial timescales with remarkably high numerical precision, and with the fastest randomization occurring in regions of parameter space previously identified as maximally chaotic. Interestingly, this effective randomization can occur on timescales linear in system size, suggesting that the sub-ballistic growth of Renyi entropies typically observed in systems with conservation laws can be bypassed in non-random Hamiltonians with an appropriate choice of initial conditions.